Violett Beane Previews New CBS Series ‘God Friended Me’ [Exclusive Interview]

You might recognize Violett Beane from her role as Jesse Quick on The Flash, or maybe from her heartbreaking arc as Lily on The Resident. Next, you can catch her starring as Cara Bloom on the new CBS series, God Friended Me.

God Friended Me follows Miles Finer, an outspoken atheist, whose life is turned upside down when he receives a friend request from God. Miles eventually accepts a friend request suggestion from God that connects him to journalist Cara Bloom, played by Beane.

Brought together by the “God Account,” Miles and Cara find themselves investigating God’s friend suggestions and inadvertently helping others in need.

I recently had the chance to chat with Beane about her role on God Friended Me and what sets this new show apart from others.

Beane said she was interested in God Friended Me because of the positive tone and the message of the series.

“It’s this uplifting, sort of positive message, and I think when I was reading the pilot I was just really drawn to that. I feel like a lot of the scripts out there today and a lot of the movies and just the world, in general, can have sort of a negative or violent sort of tone to it, but this show is very positive and uplifting, and I think it’s what people need right now,” Beane explained.

When we’re first introduced to Beane’s character, Cara, we get the chance to learn a lot about her pretty quickly. In addition to working as a journalist, you learn she has a complicated family history.

“She came to New York in search of her mom who left when she was a little girl and that she’s actually found her but she can’t work up the nerve to actually talk to her. She doesn’t know what she would say. It’s been so many years. And Miles actually helps her figure it out and helps her talk to her mom and reconnect with her.”

Cara isn’t the only friend suggestion Miles receives on the pilot, but she’s the one who decides to work alongside him.

“With Cara, she could have been a one-off friend suggestion, but there’s a reason she sticks around and she teams up with Miles and Rakesh to try to figure out who’s behind the account.”

“She’s a journalist so she’s incredibly interested in the story of all of this. When you meet her, she’s also got writer’s block, so she’s not doing well in her job, and there’s a lot of things going wrong. I think that the God account and Miles and all of it came at this right moment for her. And she is a believer, and she believes that everyone’s connected and that there’s something higher than us, so I think this to her is pretty magical.”

As for how their relationship will develop over the course of the series, Beane suggested that they would certainly become close.

“I think the two of them are definitely pretty interested in each other. They have totally different perspectives on life and on the God account in general, but I think that that’s kind of what intrigues them about one another. So you’re going to see a little bit of something going on there.”

Beane also addressed the religious element of the show and the show’s title. “It does say God in the title, but the show actually doesn’t revolve around faith. It’s touched upon in certain episodes, but it’s really just about humanity in general,” she said.

“All the characters in the story, big and small, all come from different backgrounds, and different religions, and different perspectives on life, so I think it might be kind of special for people who are struggling with something like that in their real life. If they’re sitting down with their family or friends that they’re different from them, that maybe it’ll give people a different perspective,” Beane continued.

Of course, this show couldn’t exist without social media, so Beane discussed how the show approaches that element of the story.

“Social media has developed so much since the beginning of it, and I think that this show is kind of trying to bring it back to what it used to be. It used to be a place where you could actually connect with people,” she noted.

“I think about a lot of kids who are in high school, and their Instagram follower number is literally their amount of popularity, you know? Luckily, I had just graduated when it blew up, so I didn’t experience that. But I know so many kids out there, and I know myself, when I was young, feeling all of the crazy things you feel when you’re going through puberty, and I can’t imagine, having that age of social media at the same time. So it’s definitely transforming and changing every single day, but I think this show is trying to remind us of what it originally was there for.”

One of the biggest challenges for Beane when it came to working on God Friended Me was moving to New York, but more than that, it was also something she said she was very excited about.

“It’s been really, really magical being here, and I think this show, based on the material that it is, needs to be in a place like New York where there’s so many different cultures and different people and people who have a story to tell,” she said. “It’s been pretty great being here and just experiencing this new part of life.”

Beane talked a little about what she’s loved about working on the series so far.

“Our creators, Steven [Lilien] and Bryan [Wynbrandt], have always, from the beginning, been super open with us about what they want for the show, and they ask us what we want, and they want to make sure that we’re still excited to be doing what we’re doing,” she said. “I’ve never really had that experience where I’ve been so close to the story.”

Be sure to catch Violett Beane on God Friended Me, premiering Sunday, September 30th at 8:30/7:30c on CBS.

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